Leaving Ana’s house had been an ordeal. Word of her return had gotten out as photos from their gas station stop had gone viral, and people guessed they were heading home to Carolina Cove.
By the time they’d arrived, a mass of guards and security were positioned around Ana’s home and neighborhood for crowd control. People had screamed and shouted at her when she’d left the safety of the house for the blacked-out SUV, but it was a woman’s shrill voice screaming vile, horrific things at her that had truly shaken her.
The guards’ attention had zeroed in on the woman, and within moments, she’d been taken away for questioning by police due to the sheer vehemence and vitriol she’d spewed for all to hear.
The woman was one of Rhys’s fans, no doubt. But perhaps more?
“You okay, Miss Anders?”
She must really look shaken if Axel broke his typical silence and asked. “I’m fine.”
His phone dinged, and he pulled it from his pocket as the elevator doors opened. Quinley stepped off into the sunshine beginning to wane over the beautiful view of the Cape Fear River. It would be a spectacular sunset. A beautiful ending to a stressful day and…a final goodbye?
Rhys stood staring out at the view, his back to her. And as she slowly approached him, she hated herself for comparing Rhys to Elias. Both men were handsome, both tall and broad and easily able to turn a woman’s head.
Elias was quiet, more reserved, maybe even a bit brutish in a way, whereas Rhys was what she and Ana had always termed a pretty boy. The kind of man with a face, build and visible style that stated he came from money without actually saying a word.
Rhys was dressed casually today in designer slacks and a lightweight, long-sleeved shirt cuffed at his forearms, a Patek Philippe watch banding his wrist and supple-looking Italian loafers on his feet.
“Mr. Lachlan, the woman arrested outside Ms. Taylor’s houseisthe woman we’ve been searching for. She’s being questioned regarding the threats, but her identity has been confirmed.”
Quinley looked at Axel in surprise and then back to Rhys. “Exactly how many threats were made?”
Rhys turned and focused entirely on her. “Eleven in all. Eight were considered relatively nonthreatening, but three were made by people with a history of violence or mental illness. Two are now in custody with her arrest, but one remains.”
Buteleventotal. Okay then. One person wanting her dead was one thing buteleven?
“The most volatile threats came from that woman,” Rhys said. “The police were able to identify her since she was already in the system, but they couldn’t find her. We had…hoped your return to the area would root her out and apparently it did.”
She looked at Axel and blinked, struggling to find the words she needed. “You walkedrightbehind me into the house and in front of me as we came out. I ran into you because you stuck like glue. Axel…”
The large man dipped his head. “My job is to protect you, Ms. Anders.”
And he had. But what would have happened if the woman had brought a gun? Tried to stab her or any number of other awful, horrible things? She would’ve hit Axel, not her.
Quinley stretched out a trembling hand and laid it on Axel’s thick forearm. “I’m sorry I made your job more difficult. You know,before. Thank you, Axel.”
“You’re not the first, Ms. Anders. And you’re welcome.”
“Let me know the moment you learn anything else, Axel,” Rhys said to the man as both an order and a dismissal.
Axel excused himself with a final nod at Quinley. To avoid Rhys’s stare, she watched as Axel moved to the farthest point away from them but didn’t leave the roof. For safety? In case someone lurked out there amongst the pines lining the river between homes?
She scanned the area nervously, vaguely aware that Rhys moved away from the railing and gently grasped her elbow in his hand, tugging her to the large seating area in the middle of the roof where someone would have to be atop the trees to see them.
She inhaled, and even though she’d love nothing more than to sit down, she chose to remain standing on trembling legs. Facing Rhys. “Where are we?”
A grimace crossed his handsome face before a muscle spasmed in his jawline. “It was to be our home. I…had planned to give you a posthoneymoon surprise.”
Their home. She blinked rapidly and fought off the tingle in her nose as her eyes burned with the threat of tears. “I’mso sorry, Rhys.”
He shoved his hands into his pants pockets and stared down at her, his gaze searching and…hurt. “What’s going on, Quinley? You told me Elias Blackwell was just a friend.”
Her stomach threatened to revolt, and she pressed a hand to the buttons over her waist. “Heis.”
Rhys drew back and shook his head. “You kiss your friends? Lay atop them on the couch while doing it?”
She felt her face heat with embarrassment and guilt and hoped the sunset would be blamed as the cause. Axel might have literally protected her with his life that day, but he’d also thrown her under the bus with one of his many reports. “I havenevercheated on you. Not once, notever. The—the kiss with Elias just happened, but we—we were obviously over, Rhys.”
